BeagleBone Black Primer, The

The BeagleBone Black Primer Master BeagleBone Black: Today’s most powerful low-cost embedded development platform! You can do amazing things with BeagleBone Black. Get started in just five minutes: all you need is a USB cable and this easy, hands-on primer! Brian McLaughlin teaches you enough to be seriously dangerous. Start with the simplest embedded programming concepts. Explore BeagleBone Black’s capabilities, and learn all the essentials, from controlling I/O to establishing network connections. Then, step by step, master increasingly advanced techniques with the Cloud9 IDE and BoneScript…Integrate external hardware…Install Linux or Android…Use Cape expansion boards to do even more. Don’t just learn it: do it. This guide is packed with projects, from weather stations, to car computers, to a “capstone” project using Software Defined Radio to capture signals from local airspace and orbiting satellites! You won’t just put BeagleBone Black to work: you’ll start imagining great projects of your own. And then you’ll build them. Discover how BeagleBone Black works, and what it can do Get your BeagleBone Black—and get it working, fast Link your BeagleBone Black to the world, and link yourself to the global BeagleBone community Learn to read schematics and use them to connect hardware Prototype your projects with breadboards Extend BeagleBone Black with Capes Add sensors to capture and use data from the environment Use actuators to make things happen in the real world Make your BeagleBone Black recognize your face Learn from mistakes, and go beyond what you’ve already learned   Brian McLaughlin is an engineer by profession and by hobby. Building on a solid foundation in software, he was first exposed to advanced hardware topics while working on the Hubble Space Telescope. After working for Lockheed Martin, he joined NASA, where he’s supported many of NASA’s most exciting missions. He holds a B.S. in computer science (North Carolina State University) and an M.S. in systems engineering (University of Maryland). He’s also written for GeekDad and is a member of the growing Maker community.  

Table of Contents:
&> Introduction Who This Book Is For ....................................................................1 How This Book Is Organized .........................................................2 Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................3 Let Me Know What You Think .......................................................3 Chapter 1 Embedded Computers and Electronics ......................... 5 What Are Embedded Electronics? ..................................................5 Arduino .........................................................................................9 What Should Readers Get Out of This Book? ...............................12 Chapter 2 Introduction to the Hardware ................................... 15 A Short Lineage of the BeagleBone Black .....................................15      BeagleBone Black Hardware Specification ....................................19      Processor .................................................................................20      RAM ........................................................................................21      Onboard Flash and MicroSD External Storage ...........................22      Ethernet ...................................................................................22      General-Purpose Input/Output .................................................22 Chapter 3 Getting Started ....................................................... 25 Setting Up and Saying “Hello, World!” ........................................26 Connecting to Ethernet ................................................................32 Chapter 4 Hardware Basics ..................................................... 39 Electronics Basics: Voltage, Current, Power, and Resistance .........39 The Short Circuit .........................................................................43      The Resistor .............................................................................45      Diodes and LEDs ......................................................................48      Build an LED Circuit .................................................................50 Chapter 5 A Little Deeper into Development .............................. 57 Interpreted Code .........................................................................57      Python—A Step Above Interpreted Language ..............................59      Implementing Blinking Lights In Python .....................................62 Compiled Code ...........................................................................65 Chapter 6 Trying Other Operating Systems ............................... 71 History of the Linux World: Part I ................................................71 Picking an Operating System .......................................................73 Loading the microSD Card ..........................................................73 Chapter 7 Expanding the Hardware Horizon .............................. 81 Binary Basics ...............................................................................81      Hardware Representation .........................................................83 Serial Communications ................................................................91      Inspecting UART ......................................................................93 Chapter 8 Low-Level Hardware and Capes ................................. 97 Linux Hardware Through The File System .....................................97 Hardware in the File System .......................................................100 One Pin, Multiple Functions ......................................................103 Hardware Configuration ............................................................108 Chapter 9 Interacting with Your World, Part 1: Sensors .......... 113 Sensor Basics ............................................................................113      Analog Versus Digital .............................................................120      Sample Rates .........................................................................124 Chapter 10 Remote Monitoring and Data Collection ................... 127 Project Outline ..........................................................................127 Wiring Up The Project ...............................................................130 Seeing the Light .........................................................................134 Publishing the Sensor Data ........................................................137 Start Collecting Data .................................................................142 Chapter 11 Interacting with Your World, Part 2: Feedback and Actuators 149 Controlling Current ...................................................................149 Blinking to Fading .....................................................................156 Vibration Motors .......................................................................159 Servo Motors ............................................................................161 Stepper Motors .........................................................................165 Chapter 12 Computer Vision ................................................... 171 Connecting a Camera ................................................................171 Utilizing OpenCV Libraries .........................................................177 A Better Photo Booth ................................................................178 Cascade Classifiers ....................................................................180 Tracking a Face .........................................................................182 Chapter 13 Sniffing Out Car Trouble ......................................... 189 Car Computers ..........................................................................189 Interfacing to the Car ................................................................191 Reading the Car’s Status ............................................................198 Interpreting the Data .................................................................199 Chapter 14 Ground Control to Major Beagle ............................. 205 Radio Data ...............................................................................205 WiFi ..........................................................................................210 Software Defined Radio .............................................................212 Grabbing Libraries with Git ........................................................215 Radio Testing ............................................................................216 Calibrating the Radio ................................................................219 Listening to Aviation Data .........................................................221 BeagleBone Black Air Traffic Control Station..............................223 Chapter 15 Moving Forward .................................................... 225 Project Ideas .............................................................................226      Portable Gaming Solutions .....................................................226      Weather Station .....................................................................227      In-Car Computer ....................................................................227      More Advanced Aircraft “RADAR” ..........................................228      Satellite Ground Station .........................................................228 Tools ........................................................................................230 Resources ..................................................................................230 Index ................................................................... 233

About the Author :
Brian McLaughlin is an engineer by profession and by hobby. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from North Carolina State University and a masters of engineering in systems engineering from the University of Maryland. With a solid foundation in software, Brian was initially exposed to more advanced topics in hardware while working on the Hubble Space Telescope Project. Over time, Brian began writing for GeekDad and has become a part of the growing Maker community. Brian lives in Maryland with his beautiful wife and two boys.